Dr. Sherri A. Mason is Professor of Chemistry and Chair of the Department of Geology & Environmental Sciences at the State University of New York at Fredonia. Her research team has conducted a survey for plastic pollution and have found plastic particles within all five of the Great Lakes. The counts obtained, especially those within Lakes Erie and Ontario, rival those within the most polluted parts of the world’s oceans. Continue reading →

In the not too distant past, I was one of those smug twenty-somethings who prided myself on walking farther, floating longer, and staying later than other anglers to get my fish. I still think of myself as that angler, but the prevailing reality has changed a bit. It is a rarity anymore that I find myself with a whole day, much less an entire weekend free of responsibility, to spend at my leisure. The days of loading down the cooler, kicking the dog into the truck and taking to the river before dawn with no immediate plans to return are few and far between. Continue reading →

The picture is of the good old days. It sits on a shelf next to other photos, trinkets and memorabilia that few people have ever seen. The man in the small round frame holds a bass with a mouth big enough to swallow a fist. I know the size because his arm is one third of the way into the belly of the beast. Continue reading →

I have never been able to seek out epiphanies. They dart across my mind like bats on summer’s last light, everywhere at once and nowhere in particular. My learning curve for fly fishing in New Zealand was spent swearing fish had echolocation and casting through air that would sooner yield me a flying mammal than a fish beneath the surface of the water. I thought I could fly fish, but it wasn’t until I made it out of Middle Earth that I actually became an angler. Continue reading →

Tucker is almost quivering, sitting on the edge of excitement and instinct. I have his leash in my hand but we both know it won’t be used once we’re in the woods. We put on a show for my parents and say we will be safe, we will take water, we will go east if we get lost. I know what to say now so they won’t worry. One day I’ll be old enough to go on my own without telling them.

For all the time being stolen from us these days, I still find myself with plenty of time to wonder.

Once upon a time I obsessed myself with the semantics of my environment; Native vs. wild vs. invasive – words with simple definitions but complex meanings. I came to see the world before me as a poorly contrived concoction. The more I saw, the more I longed for what once had been – Nature left to its own devices for millennia. It seemed impossible to imagine. I could only wonder.Continue reading →